Monday, October 22, 2012

Heresy Begets Heresy

That cults and sects borrow teaching from other aberrant groups should come as no surprise. Scott Diekmann at Standing Firm has posted a bit of such history with a link between Benjamin Wilson (acquaintance of John Thomas, founder of Christadelphians)* and the Jehovah's Witnesses in that Charles Taze Russell of the latter group bought the rights to a Wilson's Bible interlinear to disseminate as their scriptures until the New World Translation was published in 1961.

Each of these historic figures was involved in the 19th-century movement to restore the church to its pristine state by going back to the Bible without the benefit of historical teaching or creeds. In doing so, each of these, along with other notables of the era, established error rather than purity. This serves as a warning for us today: new teaching does not equate to true teaching.

* Wilson would later co-founder of the Church of God of Abrahamic Faith.